Retail Mantra: If You Email, The Shoppers Will Come

If you feel like you are getting more promotional email from retailers these days, you're right.

CNBC

Leap day sales

After seeing the crush of promotional email tied to Leap Day, we reached out toResponsys, a marketing software company that tracks the email activity of more 100 of the nation's top retailers. And here's what they had to say:

Email activity continued at a record-setting pace in February. On average retailers sent each of their subscribers 15.4 promotional emails in February. That's up nearly 27 percent year-over-year.

And yes, many took advantage of the extra day in February to try to ring up more sales.

The majority of major retailers sent at least one promotional email on Leap Day, as Feb. 29 is often called, according to Responsys. About 42 percent of the promotional emails sent out on Wednesday referred to Leap Day, a 33 percent increase from 2008, the last leap year.

"'Leap' was the key word of the day and '29' was the number of the day," said Chad White, research director at Responsys.

“‘Leap’ appeared in the subject lines of most Leap Day emails," White said. "With a few retailers focusing on the ‘extra day’ theme instead. Retailers played with ‘29’ less, but Lane Bryant and Omaha Steakspromoted items for $29 and less; OfficeMax and Sephora offered free shipping on purchases of $29 or more; andBuy.comand TigerDirect offered 29 special deals.”

White expects retailers will also take advantage of other rare events that occur this year as well.

"In July, the Summer Olympics take place; in November, we have a presidential election; and in December there's the numerically unique 12/12/12," he said.